The works from ROMA were completed during and after Maureen O’Leary’s residency at the American Academy in Rome. Taking the city and its inhabitants as her subject, the artist’s paintings are a tribute to the blend of past and present permeating Roman life. Central themes in the series include “macchine, alberi, monumenti, donne, e vita” (cars, trees, monuments, women, and life). 

The paintings represents the culmination of O’Leary’s experiments with flattened and distorted perspectives, lyrical and gestural brushwork, non-local color, and complementary colors (such as green and red or orange and blue). The artist distills her compositions into major shapes and essential elements with idiosyncratic details. At times, she creates two or more vantage points forcing irregular perspective. These works fit squarely in the legacy of Fauvist and German Expressionist practices, emphasizing transient feelings or emotions over a verbatim reproduction of everyday life.